WTFspaghetti

Thursday, December 4, 2014

You guys know me, so you know that Fantasy sports is one of my favorite hobbies. It is a great way to get into watching games that you normally don't care about and it fulfills my dream job of being a GM for a team. If you haven't tried it before, it is never too late. Here is interesting article by Lance Marks on some NBA action.

DAT BROW DOE

If there was a vote for NBA MVP through the 1st month of the regular season, chances are Anthony Davis would get plenty of votes. He has been a dominant force for the New Orleans Pelicans, and the 21-year-old seems to only get better and better every single game. While he might not have that dynamic personality many people are used to seeing from a superstar, he does have a distinguishable feature that has become marketable. For better or worse, Anthony Davis is going to be known as Unibrow (or, for short, The Brow).

It might seem weird to a lot of people that eyebrows that merge together to form one big one on a player’s face is a marketable asset. However, people quickly realized that it was not a joke but instead something he was going to embrace when he decided to file for a trademark. It has been mentioned or eluded to in quite a few different advertisements for him at the beginning of his career. Much like players known for facial hair or a unique hairstyle, this is another way to differentiate Anthony Davis from other players in the NBA. Oh yeah, he also just happens to be the best individual player in the NBA so far this year from a statistical standpoint. He is a fantasy basketball standout in nearly every single category

Sometimes, it can be difficult for a young player to develop some sort of identity in the NBA. It does not seem to be much of an issue for a guy such as Davis right now. There might be some people who feel like he needs to develop more of a personality instead of relying on his singular eyebrow, but that will probably come in time. In advertisements, he has been able to also work on developing a stoic, deadpan type of humor similar to Tim Duncan or Blake Griffin. Both of those players are doing just fine, and they don’t even have that unique look.

Monday, July 7, 2014

It’s been a few months, but I just can’t stay away for long.
This blog serves a pretty decent timeline in my life and as long as I feel the
need to write down my random bullshit, it will continue for another five years.

Five years…dang. Hard to imagine that I would still be
posting blog entries in 2014 when I started in 2009. Time seriously flies! Not
too much has changed though, I am still playing video games and spewing gibberish…so
let’s get this going shall we?!?

It has been 4 months
since my last post and that was my 6th entry in my League of Legends
(LoL) "journal". I hit 100 normal PvP games and my record was as average as you
can get – 50 wins and 50 losses. Certainly I am level 30 now…probably fighting
off pro team offers left and right while streaming to 1000's of nerds nightly…you
know, the typical, completely normal route that all LoL players do…

…yeah, I think I won 2 or 3 out of my next 10 games. I found
myself getting frustrated at my team mates to the point that I was actually
actively arguing with them. That’s right; I was yelling and arguing with kids
that were probably half my age. Once I
realized this sad fact about myself, I decided it was time to take a break. I
didn’t uninstall the game per se…but I did make a conscience decision to STOP
playing. It also helped that the same week that I decided to stop playing LoL,
Titanfall released.

Dat Titanfall HYPE!!

BIG. FAT. FAIL…

…for me anyway. I still like the game. I really like the
concept, the gameplay, the verticalness of the maps, and the overall feel of
the game. I was actually shocked that after a week or so, I was pretty much
done with it. It wasn't that fun to me and I still can’t figure out why
exactly. My best guess is that I am pretty much done with the standard FPS game
modes. I probably put 20-30 hours into it before I was bored…like really,
really, bored.

Diablo 3 Reaper of
Souls approaches…

I’ll just log into Diablo 3 (D3) and screw around. I highly doubt
I’ll buy the expansion. I mean, how fun can the changes be? D3 is just a game
about loot and killing the same shit over and over again…I am just so bored, I
have nothing to play!!!

That was my thought process going into it. I lasted about 4
days before I bought the expansion and before I knew it, I was playing A LOT.
Like, MMORPG a lot. Atleast 3 hours a day, sometimes less, but more often than
not, I was staying up way too late to grind gear. I have to give it to Blizzard;
all of the changes they made rocked my face. I was a fan of the original D3 and
dumped 100s of hours into it. However, after I beat inferno, I just lost
interest and stopped playing.

This time around I easily doubled or even tripled my playing
time. It took about 2-3 months, but I finally hit the wall with the game.
Clearing T6 rifts with ease and farming Act I bounties for that fucking Ring of
Royal Grandeur got really boring. Patch 2.1 is coming out soon though and it
would seem to be a game changer. Once it goes live, it is going to be hard not to get sucked back in.

I am kinda scared though...I have moved on; I don’t really
want to go back.

Hiatus no more!

That’s right, I have moved on…more like back to League of
Legends. I have gotten myself caught up on all of the patches that I have
missed as well the NA and EU pro scene. Yesterday I completed my return to LoL
by playing some AI bot games!

Here is a pro tip – Don’t play D3 and LoL. If you want to
play both, I highly suggest you update the movement keys in D3 to match LoL.
Both of the games are very reliant on mouse clicking. D3 uses left click for
moving and LoL uses right click for moving. My brain doesn’t compute jumping
back and forth, so for now I am just going to stick it out with LoL.

I was kinda sad that my main champion got a lot of work done to dethrone him from OP status. The good old fat man that drinks beer is
still usable, just nowhere need as powerful as he once was. Coming back from a
long break I figure it’s a good time to mess around with a variety of champs.
So far I played a few games with Ziggs and Lulu. One thing is certain; I am
very bad at this game. It isn't as easy as it looks and it will take some time to
get back to the skill level I was at before I stopped playing. The nice thing
is that I can go back on my previous blog entries to read up and watch videos
that helped me.

I read this quote on the LoL reddit page a few months back
and saved it because how awesome I think it is.

"Lanes are important because they teach different things. Top will teach you how to lane, mid will teach you mechanics, jungle will teach you timing, support will teach you awareness, and adc will teach you positioning."

That is some high elo Buddha shit right there people. In my experience, that quote is right on. I wanted to post it here because I am REALLY going to remember that when I start doing PvP matches again. My main goal by far is to not allow my team mates to get a reaction out of me. No matter how illogical they might act, I am really going to try just to focus on getting better and winning games.

Not sure the next time I will blog, but I feel I rambled on quite a bit for one entry. I’ll leave you with a good read on how to become a better player along with a pretty legit quote from a pro player.

Wednesday, February 26, 2014

100 games played. 50 games won

Of course game 100 ends with the servers shitting on themselves...I wouldn't have it any other way. What does this mean? I have no clue. I am pretty happy that it isn't a negative ratio. I also feel that in the last 15 or so games, I have REALLY executed well with what I have learned and have made solid strides to becoming a better player. I have only had a few games were I clearly lost my lane and no matter what is happening in the game, I just will work on my goals...CS, team fighting positioning, sieging, timing objectives...and not allow my nerd rage to transfer from my brain to the in-game chat system.

Currently I am half way through level 26 and have noticed that there are atleast 1-2 level 30s in my games now. I feel that I am starting to hang with them, but some of these players have 500+ wins under their belts and it would be an understatement to say that we are on a similar skill level.

I feel like a REAL boy!!

I have only being playing "Draft Pick" and no longer have any intentions to play "Blind Pick" ever again. In my opinion, it is how the game is supposed to be played. Bans, pick orders, team compositions / synergy, and discussion within your team all take place within the Champion Selection screen. In Blind, everyone just argues over who said "insert random role here" first in chat. I am not alone in thinking this way either, Riot does the Ranked queue with a Draft. It just feels right.

It also seems to me that the players that play Draft are normally overall more knowledgeable about the game. In most cases, a more knowledgeable player equals a better player. This is more then likely due to the fact that in order to play Draft, you have to have least spent a decent amount of money on the game. Sure, you could of just grind out the IP and spent it all on Champions. Maybe you are one of the few that Riot has never seen a dime of money from you, but if that is the case you have quite the hefty amount of games under your belt and are probably way better at the game then a noob like myself.

Oh that's right... I am not a NOOB sir, I am a below average player. Get it right fucko!

Champion Selection!!!

One of the many tips that I have read and heard over and over again was to pick atleast two roles and have a few champions within those roles that you are good at. Once you have a good handle on them, branch out in case you are force to play a different role, but always go for your two preferred roles.

Mine? Middle and Support

Middle is normally my first choice, but I do enjoy both of them pretty equally. Maybe middle edges out support slightly, but eh...

As I have mentioned before, in all games, I normally go for magic wielding bad motha fuckas. So the middle lane was an obvious choice. Thrown in a Mage that gains his ability from beer and I may not play another champion EVER. After alot of debate I decided to purchase Gragas and make him my main. I figured that if I am force to play a role outside of mid / support that I could use Gragas in the Jungle and Top lane. I have also watched tons of videos about him...he doesn't really have a down side and looks like a ton of fun.

...did I mention all of his abilities are based off of drinking BEER? Enough said.

He does get banned a decent amount of the time, so I can always fall back to one of my old homies like Malzahar. However, this week Zed is free and I have been playing a few games with him. I have a feeling that if next week's free champion rotation doesn't have a mid laner that I find intriguing, I might just go ahead and buy him. He is a flipping ninja guys...my inner nerd can barely keep it together when I play him.

I tried several times to stop myself, but I just can not, NOT, sing Rob Van Winkle's Ice Ice Baby. I have tried to stop myself yet every game...at some point...it will be said. More then likely out loud and followed by a shoulder shimmy of some sorts. Now that I think about it, maybe its a good thing that I don't have him on my roster!

Dat Support Doe

So I like Mages which makes me a good fit for mid lane, but I also enjoying support classes in RPGs...ie tanking / healing / Crowd Control’n ect…

The game that this blog was centered around for the first few years of its existence was World of Warcraft. My main role that I played, wrote about, and theorycrafted for, was the Healer. I enjoy supporting other players that pew pew the bad guys and LOVED showing people the difference between a good and bad support player…most of the time I was the good kind…most of the time.

For whatever reason, Support is by far the least sought after role in LoL, so it made a lot of sense to make it one of my main roles. I have 4 Support Champions that I am comfortable playing, but only 3 that I really prefer to play. Annie, Blitzcrank, Leona, and Soraka are my roster, but I try to avoid Soraka unless I know that my ADC and I are on the same page. Since I am almost exclusively a solo queue player, Soraka doesn’t get played much.

Recently I have been playing A LOT of Leona. She was on sale last week and I did not hesitate long before I pulled the trigger and picked her up. She is extremely fun to play and her tool kit allows her to be an aggressive super tank. She has flaws, but in each phase of the game (Early, Mid, and Late) she is strong. Not to mention that during team battles, you are the one that initiates the fight! Picking the right moment to jump in and when not to will determine the outcome by itself most of the time. It is uber important and I for one would rather have the responsibility fall on me rather than someone else that has no clue when to and when not to initiate.

Road to 30

I am close. I can feel it. I can SENSE IT!

95% of my friends list is composed of friendly players that I have actually played with during the grind. The sad part is they are almost exclusively level 30 and are enjoying the ranked queue. They don’t have time to play with sub-par level 30 noobs like myself anymore. I did find it interesting that most are in bronze. However, there are a few that are silver and I don’t feel they were any better or knowledgeable then me. I do not see myself being able to grind out of whatever league I am placed in. If I am lucky, I will get 2 games in a night…but that is always influx. With Riot having 5 levels in each division and having to reach 100 points in each to be eligible for promotion, I just don’t think it will be possible.

Hell, it may take me a week just to get my placement matches completed. Well that is about it for now. Until next time people!

Wednesday, January 22, 2014

Right in your face...and you will love it.

Shit is getting real people. It is finally time for me to talk about my number 1 most anticipated game of 2014, Titanfall.

Most anticipated? Really? Absolutely. I love me some FPS games and considered myself at an above average skill level when it comes to then, especially the Call of Duty franchise series. I put days of gameplay into the series starting with Modern Warfare 2 and going through Black Ops 2. Overall, I had a freaking blast playing those games and very little complaints. I just grew tired of the same of old shit. I can go on and on about why I stop playing the series with Black Ops 2, but I will save you from that rant....

My point is that I enjoyed the fuck out of the Call of Duty series, especially the Infinity Ward titles (Modern Warfare 2 & 3). Without getting into the details, Infinity Ward is still around, but all of the main guys left the company sometime during the development of Modern Warfare 3. They got together and started up their own company called "Respawn" and started creating their baby, thats right, Titanfall.

TL:DR - I like FPS games, especially the Modern Warfare Call of Duty games. The same people that developed / created the MW games made a new company and created Titanfall. Titanfall tickles my fancy.... aggressively

Let Me Break This Thing On Down....

This is taken directly from their wiki - Titanfall is an upcoming first-person shooter video game developed by Respawn Entertainment and published by Electronic Arts as an exclusive for Microsoft Windows, Xbox 360, and Xbox One. The game was officially announced as Respawn's debut game at Microsoft's E3 2013 press conference, and is scheduled for release on March 11, 2014.

In Titanfall, players fight in online multiplayer-only matches set on a war-torn planet as mech-style Titans and their pilots. Its action is fast-paced, including abilities to run on walls and hijack mechs, and extended periods between player deaths. Respawn describes the game as bringing "scale, verticality, and story" to first-person shooter multiplayer gaming, incorporating elements traditionally used in single-player campaigns. The game uses Microsoft's cloud computing services to offload non-player activity to servers and optimize the home computer for graphical performance.

The game won over 60 awards at its E3 2013 reveal, including a record-breaking six E3 Critics Awards, and Best of Show from several media outlets. It also won official awards at Gamescom and the Tokyo Game Show. Many reviewers predicted Titanfall to be the next step for the first-person shooter genre, and IGN's Ryan McCaffrey declared the game "Microsoft's killer app".

I highly suggest you check out the rest of the wiki for more information on it. I am going to touch on some of the main points that I find the most intriguing and have multiple nerd-gasums on the way. Join me!

First Official Announcement Videos

eh...okay

That is pretty much how I felt about it the first time I saw it. Looks interesting. I like FPS games, but I am not aware of a game that has really nailed down Mech gameplay. It just doesn't seem to work. Then the next day they released a gameplay demo. This is when the game got my attention and never let go. Pretty dope if I don't say so myself. However, I am still a little confused if this was footage from single or multiplayer.

Official Gameplay Trailer

I have probably watched this stupid gameplay video over 30 times in the last 4 months and is the main reason why this game jumped to number 1 on my most anticipated games list. I'll let the gameplay do the talking for me.

Fuck. Yeah.

However, I was still confused if we were watching single or multiplayer action. Some of the aspects seemed very much like a single player mission / campaign while others looked like a PvP match. Well after a few months, we finally got our answer.

This game does not have a single player...

Come again? NO SINGLE PLAYER ACTIONZ?!?1?1! Please point me to the nearest internet forum so I may rage and call this the single most retarted thing that I have ever heard...

Or not. I rarely play the single player mode in FPS games in the first place. From my experience they are normally pretty fucking lame with loads of terrible voice acting and plot lines. I think the last one that I played was Black Ops and to be honest...it was only because Ice Cube was one of the main characters lol.

YEAH E YEAHH EEE!

I am completely okay with this game not having single player if they are using all of their resources to make the multiplayer the best that it can possibly be. To the happiness of thousands, that is exactly what Respawn's Vince Zampella stated in an interview with GamesIndustry

"We make these single-player missions that take up all the focus of the studio, that take a huge team six months to make, and players run through it in 8 minutes," he said. "And how many people finish the single-player game? It's a small percentage. It's like, everyone plays through the first level, but 5 percent of people finish the game.

"Really, you split the team. They're two different games. They're balanced differently, they're scoped differently. But people spend hundreds of hours in the multiplayer experience versus 'as little time as possible rushing to the end' [in single-player]. So why do all the resources go there? To us it made sense to put it here. Now everybody sees all those resources, and multiplayer is better. For us it made sense."

I am SO glad they made this choice rather then push back the game another 4-5 months or worst, rush it to production without it being as polished and smooth as it could have been.

Random Thoughts...be scared

We are a few months away from this game being released on Microsoft products. Yes, unfortunately this game is an exclusive to one of the rulers of the world, Microsoft. It will be available only on Xbox 360, Xbox One, and PC.

Since my current plan is to purchase and play this game on the PC, I have been paying closer attention then normal to how the gaming servers are setup and what the end user experience will be. The PC version will be hosted through EA's Origin gaming application and servers. Does this make anyone else have an emotion close to the word "ugh" or "gross"? I don't know, but after I bought Battlefield 4 and witnessed first hand all of the issues that came with it on the PC...I am not excited about this at all.

I always planned on purchasing a next generation console and didn't think anything would really persuade me into not purchasing a PS4. However, I got to thinking and realized that personally, it would be pretty silly of me to buy a PS4 when almost all of the games that I want to play are either on the PC or exclusive to Xbox. Lets go through the list in no particular order shall we?

Titanfall - Xbox / PC

Diablo 3 Expansion: Reaper of Souls - PC / PS4

Watchdogs - PS4 / Xbox / PC

South Park: The Stick of Truth - PS4 / Xbox / PC

Tales from the Borderlands - PC

Wildstar - PC

What do all of them have in common? PC! Why buy either of the consoles? I just recently updated my PC within the last year and while I wouldn't consider it a "gaming PC"...it is definitely a solid gaming rig and will be able to play all of the above mentioned games. Just makes the most sense to me.

Leaked alpha footage and dat hype video!

I will leave you with these two videos. I recommend watching the hype video first, but you do as you see fit. Until next time people!

Thursday, January 16, 2014

FIFTH Entry

Entry 5?!? Holy balls people. To my own surprise I am still playing this soul sucking game, League of Legends. Now, when I say still play it, I mean I am playing daily PvP matches and watching streams on Twitch of others playing when I am not.

It's official. I have completely been overtaken by the game and it's community. I have even started to make a few gameplay videos on my YouTube channel and I have only streamed LoL on Twitch for the last month. Overall the videos are very basic and to be honest, don't really offer much other then "here is me playing this video game". The plan is to start putting out videos with some sort of information / commentary on them, but the ones I have up now are mostly me just fucking around. The strange thing is that people are actually watching them! Even the super basic, low production, being played by a complete noob, (yours truly) YT videos are being watched. If that doesn't tell you how popular and addicting this game is...then I don't know what will.

Season 4 is Live

LCS Season 4 started this week and you know what I did? I watched the whole F'n stream on Twitch. I was at work as well, so I wasn't able to watch every single moment...but it was on in the background just like if I was watching a a baseball game or any other TV show. Overall it was my first time watching a Professional LCS match live and I have to say I was pretty impressed. It is still very clear that I am a super noob. The announcers, the live crowd, and the TwitchTV chat all seemed like they were on another level and were watching a different game then I was.

I find it very difficult to follow a match when a team fight goes down. Between the announcers yelling and 10 champions health bars on the screen...its tough for me to follow. It all kinda looks like a large cluster fuck. I do realize that the announcers make a big difference and I shouldn't quite judge it yet...but I am not sure how much a broadcaster change can really help me. All of the team fighting I saw during the EU LCS matches very fast paced and involved ALOT of target switching. It may just be the way it is and maybe once I stop "noob'n it up" I'll be able to follow along a pro game with more enjoyment.

Road to Level 30

It takes ALOT longer then I first realized. The majority of the games that I have played have been against AI opponents and I was well aware that this yields less XP. I thought to myself that if I had just played PvP matches instead of the 100+ AI games that I would already be level 30 and to be honest, I probably would. However, I have probably played close to 40-50 PvP games in the last month or so and I just feel like I will never ever get to level 30. It is a legit grind and begs the question...

How are some people so clueless on how to play when they are level 30?
I am not trying to be a douche or anything, but from what I have seen from streams and read on various sites, Bronze and Silver leagues are literally filled with players that know less about the game then I currently do. I just don't see how that is possible considering how much of a grind it is to get to level 30. I guess they could have bought XP boosts, but they would still have to play a large amount of games even with the boosts!

Maybe this is just me being a noob and I just don't get it because I have yet to experience the ranked queue. Maybe it is the Internet talking out of their ass (that never happens right?) However, people treat bronze league players that they are COMPLETELY clueless on how even a MOBA game works.

I for one can't wait to get to level 30 so I can actually compare myself to the rest of the LoL community. I still think that I am pretty below average, but that is only MY opinion. The ranking system is in place so I don't have to rely on opinions of myself or others, it does that shit for you. Do you know what doesn't do a good job of matchmaking games for your skill level? Normal games. Some normal games I feel like I am on a COMPLETELY different level then my opponents and then other games I get rolled so hard I feel like I should go back to playing against the AI...

...I mean it is that big of a difference and frankly I am getting annoyed with it. I think overall I am doing a pretty good job of not raging on my teammates and just keeping my frustrating to myself. Sometimes I slip up, but its normally just a passive aggressive / troll comment for the "lulz". Usually when the frustration is pointed at my direction and others are raging on me...I normally just agree with them and tell them sorry. Even if I feel that they are completely off basis.

I am not trying to have an argument with a stranger the few hours a day I get to myself. Fuck that noise.

Review and Improve

There are several reasons why I enjoy watching other, more skilled, gamers play LoL. The biggest of them all is how much I end up learning. LoL is a complicate game to get better at. Due to this, visual evidence of watching others play has been the biggest reason on my play improving.

As I mentioned before, I have been streaming on TwitchTV and uploading some of the more entertaining games to YT. I stated that I am mostly just fucking around, but it is nice watching your old games to see how much you improved. I watch my Veigar video yesterday and even though I ended up winning the game and had very good stats, I saw SOOO many opportunities to improve. Mostly that I was playing so passively that it almost brought me to rage lol.

It is nice to review games and recognize things that you can improve on that will start helping you NOW. Riot currently does not have a built-in, client integrated replay function but has been working on one...however, there is no ETA on when this function will go to live servers.

The website LoL Replays (third party vendor) is what most people currently use to save their replays. It is legit and has been approved by Riot themselves. It has it's pros and cons, but overall its a pretty good choice.

TwitchTV just makes it too easy for me since I already had everything setup.

Being a better player and in-progress goals

I just read a flipping awesome thread on the LoL forums titled "Tips to being a better player" by Jsp. What a fantastic read and I recommend all LoL players, regardless of skill, to take a look and read it. One of the best reads on the subject that I have come across.

Below are a few goals that I am really going to focus on for the time being.

If you actively try to improve every single game and set a goal to work towards, The ELO will come to you. Always focus on your own lane and try to improve even if your team is losing their's. You are training for the next possible game and this time it might just be YOU that is failing hard.

Top level players aim for 10 CS per minute. If my math doesn't fail me that is 100 CS at 10 minutes and 300 CS at 30 minutes. At this rate you do not need to kill any champions and still be just as powerful. I am setting my goal at 75 CS at 10 minutes consistently no matter what the situation is in the top and middle lanes. There are plenty of factors that can happen during a game that can throw this off, but if I can hit every game, I should have a pretty good edge on my opponents.

Use smart pings Abuse the smart ping system. Ignore the chat. Stop making that kid's tantrum lose the game for you. Why do you care what that 12 year old kid thinks? The mute button / feature is there for a reason, use it and make sure it doesn't affect your game. If you really want, disable the /all chat. Your teammates can still smart ping.

Minimap awareness. I think this one has been on my goals list since the beginning. In soloqueue its pointless to assume that your team has your back. Train yourself into looking at the minimap every 30 seconds and after you have mastered that, take a peek every 15 seconds. After awhile you should take a quick peek at the minimap every 2 seconds to watch out for anything suspicious. Examples being empty lanes which weren't pinged or catching an enemy jungler walking towards you. Its always worth it to check the minimap.

HOORAH! We have reached the end and if you are reading this I want to thank you and hope you check out previous articles. Follow me on TwitchTV and Twitter if you so choose. Until next time people!

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Greatings!

95% of this blog is about my addiction to video games.

The other 5% is a mishmash of the chaos that is my brain and it's thoughts...which is mostly mindless entertainment like sports (MMA & NFL), TV series, sexy females, and hearing random stories that are thought provoking and entertaining

If you like any of the previous mentioned subjects, then is your kind of BLOG! Take a look around mmmk?